Dave Graveline and the Into Tomorrow team are deeply passionate about consumer tech. For 22 years now, we've been discovering, testing, playing, and living with the technology available today and ... “Into Tomorrow”.

Tom asked: “The camera on the iPhone 6S, at what point does the camera switch from optical zoom to digital zoom, if it does? And how does that compare to the iPhone 8?”

Tom, the iPhone 6S has no optical zoom, it’s all digital.

In fact, an easy way to tell is by looking at the back of the phone, the only iPhones with optical zoom are the ones with dual cameras in the back.

That means that the iPhone 8 is also all digital, but the iPhone 8 Plus has an optical option.

The iPhone 8 Plus has an optical option

On the big screen iPhones, the camera app gets a 1x button that turns into 2x when you tap it and zooms the picture in. That’s the telephoto lens, and that’s as far as your optical zoom goes. Anything beyond that is digital again.

On the smaller screen models, you don’t get the option because there’s no telephoto lens, you just get a single wide angle lens and digital-only zoom.

If you’re so inclined, you can buy lenses that clip on to the iPhone and give it either a better zoom or a wider angle depending on which one you clip on. There are plenty of brands and the quality tends to go down if you choose less expensive models, but if you want a real optical zoom, that’s one way to get it.

Dave Graveline is the founder, Host & Executive Producer of "Into Tomorrow" in addition to being President of the Advanced Media Network".

Dave is also a trusted and familiar voice on many national commercials & narrations in addition to being an authority in consumer tech since 1994. He is also a former Police Officer and an FBI Certified Instructor.

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Dave Graveline and the Into Tomorrow team are deeply passionate about consumer tech. For 23 years now, we've been discovering, testing, playing, and living with the technology available today and ... “Into Tomorrow”.